Scribbler of Dreams~~Meet the Malones and the Crutchfields

The great thing about the public library system where I am is that can request books from online. At any given time I can have up to ten books delivered to the library down the street and pick them up at my convenience. Scribbler of Dreams by Mary Pearson was a book I had to wait a while for. I had seen it on a Amazon.com list and wanted to check it out for my 13 year old cousin. I really enjoy reading YA fiction because I am a strong believer that reading helps with educational skills and more importantly is fun to see how much YA books have changed since I was pouring over them in elementary and junior high.

Brief Plot:
Scribbler of Dreams is a different take on Romeo and Juliet with a young woman Kait as the main character. Kait Malone comes form a hardworking family that has had a rough 18 months. Her father was charged with involuntary man slaughter for killing Robert Crutchfield, the head of the very rich and powerful Crutchfield family.

The Malone’s own land the Crutchfields want and now since Kaits father is in jail the Malone’s are struggling and Kait is reeling from having to attend high school on Crutchfield land. The reader quickly gets a feeling that the animosity has gone back generations. Kait hates them only because her parents tell her to but at the new school she meets and falls in love with a sensitive artist, only later finding out he is Bram Crutchfield, Robert’s son.

Kait has talents of her own as she loves to sit and write in her journal. Bram and Kait get closer until they fall in love, all the while Kait lies to Bram about who she is ( blood Malone.) Since Kait goes by a different last name she finds it easy to lie to her family about who her boyfriend is all the while in turmoil. She goes into the Crutchfield house and integrates herself fairly easily. When she reads the old diaries of Maggie Crutchfield in the she realizes that in the late 1800’s Maggie had a baby with Jared Malone and hence their families are actually relates. When her lies become too much to bear, her father returns from prison and Kait is forced to tell her family the truth.

Although her family is angry Kait realizes that in order to be happy she needs to follow her dreams and go to college, love Bram and finally grow up. When Bram realizes that she is the daughter of his fathers’ killer he and Kait must make decide where their loyalties lay, with each other or with their families.

My Thoughts:
There are a few themes I noticed that Pearson wanted to add into her story. First of all she makes Kait a great example of lies coming back to haunt the character. Kait gets instant gratification from her lies (to be with Bram) but when she returns to her house and family guilt is the one thing that has the power of sneaking up on her.

This book also asks the question,” Should you believe everything your family tells you even if you think its wrong?” The families have valid recent feelings of animosity for each other but the author makes a good point that hard feelings about the past are usually twisted as time goes on. Before the families or knew each other as the “trouble maker” but could not answer what trouble was being made.

The characters tend to border on melodramatic at time but I could see the premise of the book happening in real life. There are tons of parents that don’t like their child’s dating companion and although this book’s plot is a bit extreme that doesn’t mean that YA readers won’t be able to relate.

Scribbler of Dreams isn’t a fantastic flaw-free book however it is one that kept my attention from beginning to end. I can tentatively recommend this novel because there are some important lessons that the characters need to learn as well as some teenagers out there. my few gripes with Scribbler of Dreams is that some things never get explained. Was the death of Robert Crutchfield an accident or not? Does Kait follow through with her vow to her parents about the land? These questions are pretty much skipped over in pearsons effort to end the story.

©Tiffy0380
2002